Xah's Edu Corner: Criticism vs Constructive Criticism

A lot intelligent people are rather confused about criticism,
especially in our â€œfree-speechâ€ free-for-all internet age. When
they say â€œconstructive criticisms are welcomeâ€ they mostly mean
â€œbitching and complaints not welcomeâ€. Rarely do people actually
mean that â€œcriticism without suggestion of possible solutions are not
welcomeâ€ or â€œimpolite criticism not welcomeâ€.

Such discernment is important. Wanton bitching as internet-using geeks
are used to is not criticism is any form.

People can be respected and make a living out of criticisms, called
critics, but not bitching. And when one really value opinions, you
often want criticism without qualifications. Just be happy that
valuable criticisms may come to you free from the experts in the
public. The instant you qualify what kind of feedback are welcome, your
feedback is compromised. (this is particularly so for political or
controversial subjects)

One easy way for many of the unix geeks to understand this is the
cryptology industry.

3. Learn when to post things.
> A lot intelligent people are rather confused about criticism,
> especially in our â€œfree-speechâ€ free-for-all internet age. When
> they say â€œconstructive criticisms are welcomeâ€ they mostly mean
> â€œbitching and complaints not welcomeâ€. Rarely do people actually
> mean that â€œcriticism without suggestion of possible solutions are not
> welcomeâ€ or â€œimpolite criticism not welcomeâ€.

4. Try "many."

5. Learn how to use commas.

6. Nobody says "constructive criticisms are welcome." They use the
singular, as should you.

7. Learn how to use commas.

8. Learn how to use parallel structure.
> Such discernment is important. Wanton bitching as internet-using geeks
> are used to is not criticism is any form.

9. Generally, the use of sentence forms like "such <noun> is
<adjective>" is even frowned upon in legal writing anymore; but it
is almost never appropriate to use the word "bitching" in the next
sentence.
> People can be respected and make a living out of criticisms, called
> critics, but not bitching. And when one really value opinions, you
> often want criticism without qualifications. Just be happy that
> valuable criticisms may come to you free from the experts in the
> public. The instant you qualify what kind of feedback are welcome, your
> feedback is compromised. (this is particularly so for political or
> controversial subjects)

10. You're still insisting that criticism in the general sense is a
plural thing. It is not. Also, these "criticisms" are not what we
call "critics." We call the people making them critics. I'd let this
one slide but you bounce back and forth too many times in one sentence
to get away with it.

11. Learn how to match a verb to its noun.

12. You still haven't figured out when to use "criticisms." I'll give
you another hint: nowhere within your writing.

13. Learn when your "expert" criticism is apropos and when it is not.

14. If you can't figure out when not to pluralize the word criticism,
I don't know why I expect you to know when to use "is" instead of
"are." However, I still recommend you learn this not-so-subtle
point of English grammar.

15. Sentences in parentheses are still sentences - capitalize and
punctuate appropriately.

16. When you make a sweeping, general statement, it helps to support
it with some kind of logically-related evidence.
> One easy way for many of the unix geeks to understand this is the
> cryptology industry.

17. Learn when to capitalize proper nouns.

18. The cryptology industry is not a "way." It is an industry. Learn
how to write clear sentences that use words in meaningful ways. One
way to do this is to utilize verbs.
> If one really desires valuable criticisms that is polite or with
> solutions or â€œconstructiveâ€ (whatever that means), one usually have
> to pay.

19. The rule is that third-person singular subjects take "is" and
third-person plural subjects take "are." You seem to have this
backwards.

20. If you are offering a dissertation on constructive criticism, you
ought to define the term rather than using a parenthetical
shoulder-shrug like this.

21. Third-person singular subjects take "has," not "have."

22. When you write something, even when it is not welcome or not
relevant to the place you post it, it is helpful to actually make
a point rather than just making several statements of things which
alternate between obvious and nonsensical.
> This post is archived at:
> http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/criticism.html

23. If something from three years ago is on the web, it is indexed by
Google. If someone wants to read it, they will find it via
Google. There is no need to post it on inappropriate newsgroups.
>
> Xah
>
> âˆ‘ http://xahlee.org/

(This isn't constructive criticism, but just a question Are you the
sum of your web page?

I think you would do better to put this sort of thing on a website
rather than post it in a newsgroup. It is too pretentious for a
newsgroup. Newsgroups are about question and answer.
--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching.

Xah Lee wrote:
> Criticism versus Constructive Criticism
>
> Xah Lee, 2003-01
>
> A lot intelligent people are rather confused about criticism,
> especially in our â€œfree-speechâ€ free-for-all internet age. When
> they say â€œconstructive criticisms are welcomeâ€ they mostly mean
> â€œbitching and complaints not welcomeâ€. Rarely do people actually
> mean that â€œcriticism without suggestion of possible solutions are not
> welcomeâ€ or â€œimpolite criticism not welcomeâ€.
>
> Such discernment is important. Wanton bitching as internet-using geeks
> are used to is not criticism is any form.
>
> People can be respected and make a living out of criticisms, called
> critics, but not bitching. And when one really value opinions, you
> often want criticism without qualifications. Just be happy that
> valuable criticisms may come to you free from the experts in the
> public. The instant you qualify what kind of feedback are welcome, your
> feedback is compromised. (this is particularly so for political or
> controversial subjects)
>
> One easy way for many of the unix geeks to understand this is the
> cryptology industry.
>
> If one really desires valuable criticisms that is polite or with
> solutions or â€œconstructiveâ€ (whatever that means), one usually have
> to pay.
> ----
> This post is archived at:
> http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/criticism.html
>
> Xah
>
> âˆ‘ http://xahlee.org/
>
Oh, God, not another one.

--
The science of economics is the cleverest proof of free will yet
constructed.

Xah Lee wrote:
> Dear John Bokma,
>
> This is a public notice that what you are trying to do is getting close
> to harrassment from the law's perspective.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Xah
>
> âˆ‘ http://xahlee.org/
>
>
> John Bokma wrote:
>> Eli Gottlieb <> wrote:
>>
>>> Oh, God, not another one.
>> Instead of cross posting more garbage, do as follows:
>>
>> Email a complaint to the email addresses you can look up yourself and
>> include the entire message of Xah:
>>
>> http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=72.231.179.135 posting host
>> http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=xahlee.org spamvertized site
>>
>>
>> If enough people complain with both, it might stop one day.
>
Ooooh! (Waggles fingers beneath chin)

John Bokma wrote:
> Eli Gottlieb <> wrote:
>
>
>>Oh, God, not another one.
>
>
> Instead of cross posting more garbage, do as follows:
>
> Email a complaint to the email addresses you can look up yourself and
> include the entire message of Xah:
>
> http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=72.231.179.135 posting host
> http://www.spamcop.net/sc?track=xahlee.org spamvertized site
>
>
> If enough people complain with both, it might stop one day.
>

What might stop? I see one technical post every one or few weeks from
Xah, followed by a dozen posts from self-appointed library-sushers such
as Eli and library-shusher-shushers such as you and me, none of which
are technical.

The one technical post, whatever one thinks of it, creates no problem;
what part of "if you find the content worthless, just ignore it" is not
understood? Nothing, actually. The respondents just like shushing people.

Back on topic for just a moment, Tilton's Law of Programming applies:
"Solve the real problem." So kudos for your shusher-shushing but...

....reporting Xah to spamcop would be an abuse of spamcop. Reporting Eli,
yourself, and me, however, would be perfectly reasonable.

On 26 Apr 2006 12:29:33 -0700, "Xah Lee" <> wrote,
quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :
>This is a public notice that what you are trying to do is getting close
>to harrassment from the law's perspective.

and what you do Xah, is very close to spam, another form of
harassment.
--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.http://mindprod.com Java custom programming, consulting and coaching.

The excessive cross posting.
> I see one technical post every one or few weeks from
> Xah, followed by a dozen posts from self-appointed library-sushers
> such as Eli and library-shusher-shushers such as you and me, none of
> which are technical.
>
> The one technical post, whatever one thinks of it, creates no problem;

It does, it's cross posted in too many groups that have no direct relation
with each other, other then they are programming languages. Xah is
trolling, you know it, I know it.
> what part of "if you find the content worthless, just ignore it" is
> not understood? Nothing, actually.

If I see someone throwing garbage on the street, should I ignore it? It
will blow away, or the street cleaners will pick it up.

I do not ignore it.

> ...reporting Xah to spamcop would be an abuse of spamcop.

You're mistaken. I don't report Xah to spamcop. Spamcop has nothing to do
with Xah. I *do* report Xah to his ISP / USP and hosting provider though.

Roedy Green <> wrote:
> On 26 Apr 2006 12:29:33 -0700, "Xah Lee" <> wrote,
> quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :
>
>>This is a public notice that what you are trying to do is getting close
>>to harrassment from the law's perspective.
>
> and what you do Xah, is very close to spam, another form of
> harassment.

I leave that up to Xah's ISP/USP and hosting provider to decide :-D

But I am sure that if a few people email, that Xah's harassment is going
to stop soon.

John Bokma wrote:
> Ken Tilton <> wrote:
>
> [ reported ]
>
>>What might stop?
>
>
> The excessive cross posting.
>
>
>>I see one technical post every one or few weeks from
>>Xah, followed by a dozen posts from self-appointed library-sushers
>>such as Eli and library-shusher-shushers such as you and me, none of
>>which are technical.
>>
>>The one technical post, whatever one thinks of it, creates no problem;
>
>
> It does, it's cross posted in too many groups that have no direct relation
> with each other, other then they are programming languages. Xah is
> trolling, you know it, I know it.

No, I do not know it. I have checked out his web site, and have been
involved in threads with him on comp.lang.lisp. He takes seriously what
he writes. whatever you think of it.

and if he were a troll, he would respond to each and every shusher to
increase the flames. in this case he just responded to someone who
threatened him.

meanwhile, some other genius has just shushed him. I think we are all
aprt of an experiemnt in Usenet addiction.

Ken Tilton <> wrote:
> and if he were a troll, he would respond to each and every shusher to
> increase the flames.

There are several ways to troll. He writes up a rant, and let others do
the flaming. He probably saves up his energy for the next rant.

Like someone else wrote: put it on a website (he already does). Turn it
into a blog, make people comment. But stop cross posting rants.
> in this case he just responded to someone who
> threatened him.

Maybe because he got a not so nice email from his hosting provider ;-)

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